Shadowprophet
Truthiness
That's sad that he did that, I knew someone else once that did that on their forum, But that was in a different continuum. "Most people will get that"..and reads Private Messages on his forum
Gene Steinberg's Financial Shenanigans @ Paracast forums
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nivek
As Above So Below
Yes at AlienHub, when it was around, Q did read pms and did many things Gene did on his forum, except the begging part...
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goblin
Noble
That is a great summary; I will add a few additional details about Gene that I find telling.
1. We are told as much as 10 years ago Gene was privately asking guests on his podcast, the Paracast, for "a loan". One of the members here moved to the same town as Gene years ago and sent Gene a friendly email. Gene promptly gave him some story about how Gene's wife messed up their checkbook, and, could he float Gene some money for the weekend?
2. Gene filed bankruptcy in 2016 and the bankruptcy record is posted at ufotrail.blogspot.com. It shows he declared an income of ~$2,700/month. He also had debts that included many small loans from payday loan type businesses, and a $44K personal loan from an individual. Gene clearly tries to get as much cash as he can from many sources, but no one knows what he does with the money.
3. Despite having access to such cash, Gene has been evicted from something like 4 apartments and 3 motels in the last 2 years.
4. Gene's email begging habit, documented for recent years only in the form of email subject lines at ufotrail.blogspot.com, was to send a note claiming financial peril but hope on the horizon, and the urgent but temporary need for donations. He has never asked for leads to find a job or for a job. He just wants cash.
5. Gene has a link to a permanent 'gene-steinberg-emergencies' URL which he regularly posts on his Facebook page and his podcast's Twitter accounts. For awhile he would update the text at that URL each time he sent out an email, so the most recent email and the web page were mostly the same story. He got lazy about that a few months ago and sometimes the page is now weeks behind the emails. But the upshot is that unless you keep his emails you will not have a record of his shifting story and endless emergencies. The twitter account @SchemeGeneRC posts screenshots of the emails, which allows one to follow how often he contradicts himself or how many times he has had the same 'emergency'.
6. Gene's original co-host for the Paracast, David Biedny, seems to think that the begging is driven by OCD.
7. Gene likes to remind people he once worked for Jim Moseley. Moseley allegedly once told someone (sorry, I forget who) who was considering giving Gene money to help him out, "That would be like throwing good money after bad."
8. Gene likes to attack anyone who points out the problems with his behavior as "haters", "trolls" and even "criminals". He gets hyperbolic and will wildly exaggerate trivial things, claiming he was sent a phishing email when someone he doesn't like emails him, that his Twitter account was hacked when he himself posted his bank account info in tweets, etc.
9. Gene runs the Paracast's forum with a freaky iron hand, banning people who question his behavior and deleting threads that touch on his questionable ways.
10. Gene has been at these shenanigans for at least 10-12 years, probably longer, but is now 73 years old. He, his wife and their dog have allegedly been living in various motel rooms for the past four months now (five months total this year, with a very brief stay in an apartment in between some of the motel stints). He continues to send emails, recently six in one day, framing things like a need for new tires for his car as dire emergencies. He claims to be paying the motel on a daily basis and to be short of cash for that. If his stories are true, I think at this point he's made the case he can no longer care for himself, his wife or dog, and they are in need of some sort of intervention and takeover of their affairs in the name of human welfare.
11. Despite it all, Gene still manages to produce a new episode of the Paracast podcast each week, and the Tech Night Owl podcast most weeks. Also in light of the above, I feel like those helping him do this, and those donating to him, at this point are effectively enablers of his self destructive ways. But I also don't know that I see him ever changing those ways until deteriorating conditions deprive him of email.
Sorry that's so long. Even so I know I forgot some of the more striking things. Gene is a frustrating puzzle, a suffering person who puts his (hopefully exaggerated suffering) on display in a controlled fashion in the name of cash. No one knows what happens with the cash but his need for it never stops. As you can see his craziness has infected others to some extent, so here we are, frustrated and venting.
The shadow
The shadow knows!
Gene gets $2700 in social security.
he gets as revenue up to $1000 an ad each month! he drives for uber. his latest shows he can make enough to pay the hotel.
let's go back to the desert mirage.
he gets $1000 from one ad. he drives ONE day two tops. now the rent is paid.
but NO! he was there for 3 months.
April may June. By my calculations based on a 1100 a month loft Gene paid NO rent for those months.
he had the money!
does he gamble? is it drugs? is he giving cash to his SIL?
his stories fall apart at the slightest investigation.
with this whole thing I am sure of only one thing.
Gene is a liar.
he gets as revenue up to $1000 an ad each month! he drives for uber. his latest shows he can make enough to pay the hotel.
let's go back to the desert mirage.
he gets $1000 from one ad. he drives ONE day two tops. now the rent is paid.
but NO! he was there for 3 months.
April may June. By my calculations based on a 1100 a month loft Gene paid NO rent for those months.
he had the money!
does he gamble? is it drugs? is he giving cash to his SIL?
his stories fall apart at the slightest investigation.
with this whole thing I am sure of only one thing.
Gene is a liar.
goblin
Noble
@Shadowprophet
P.S.
Shadowprophet if you want to go even further down the rabbit hole, look into "the merry chase" and "Paranormal Davey". Both examples of how far Gene will go when he thinks someone is about to hand him cash.
P.P.S.
I think a reason a lot of folks are here, or active at @SchemeGeneRC or in comments on the UFO Trail blog, is that Gene used people who trusted him. A lot of those people are now angry, or at least don't want others to be taken advantage of.
P.P.P.S.
And then as Jack Brewer said in a tweet, "Binnall said it before & I'll say it again: Scheme Gene Steinberg is hands down the currently most entertaining story in the entire paranormal genre. If it were on television, people all over the country would be stopping what they're doing to watch slack jawed." (And did I mention Gene Steinberg's tagline for his UFO 'radio show', the Paracast, is "the gold standard of paranormal radio"?)
P.S.
Shadowprophet if you want to go even further down the rabbit hole, look into "the merry chase" and "Paranormal Davey". Both examples of how far Gene will go when he thinks someone is about to hand him cash.
P.P.S.
I think a reason a lot of folks are here, or active at @SchemeGeneRC or in comments on the UFO Trail blog, is that Gene used people who trusted him. A lot of those people are now angry, or at least don't want others to be taken advantage of.
P.P.P.S.
And then as Jack Brewer said in a tweet, "Binnall said it before & I'll say it again: Scheme Gene Steinberg is hands down the currently most entertaining story in the entire paranormal genre. If it were on television, people all over the country would be stopping what they're doing to watch slack jawed." (And did I mention Gene Steinberg's tagline for his UFO 'radio show', the Paracast, is "the gold standard of paranormal radio"?)
GhostofBiedny
Celestial
From over on UFOtrail:
goblin
Noble
He also tweeted this yesterday I believe around the same time.
I don't really agree but I don't think everyone who has a paranormal themed podcast is an aggressive truth seeker. I think some enjoy the stories or chronicling the 'field' and personalities. Greg Bishop and Aaron Gulyas both come to mind.
GhostofBiedny
Celestial
After yesterday's break the nightmare really has resumed:
GhostofBiedny
Celestial
Also of interest although I wouldn't count on Paypal to do much:
This is in relation to the messages Schemey was sending a while back asking donors to fraudulently tick the "friends and family" payment box which exempts it from one of their fees. He is still requesting that although now he doesn't explicitly state that people should do this to circumvent the fee (he removed that part when people said it was another form of fraud) - doesn't matter though since Gene is requesting this from strangers which still makes it fraud.
I doubt Paypal would be happy about it.
This is in relation to the messages Schemey was sending a while back asking donors to fraudulently tick the "friends and family" payment box which exempts it from one of their fees. He is still requesting that although now he doesn't explicitly state that people should do this to circumvent the fee (he removed that part when people said it was another form of fraud) - doesn't matter though since Gene is requesting this from strangers which still makes it fraud.
I doubt Paypal would be happy about it.
Creepy Green Light
Don't mistake lack of talent for genius
Maybe somebody can superimpose GS's Frankenstein head over the real Gene? I don't have the skills.
Shadowprophet
Truthiness
At the very end, He began charging for premium/gold membership which gave members extra features and access to the private deleted archive. (I suppose that is different than begging, But from mine and maybe your point of view, It's not terribly far removed though)
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The shadow
The shadow knows!
I have written about the paranormal Davey incident several times. it is telling that Gene proceeded to open serious talks with the guy.
"remember the merry chase " I warned. I also told Gene that paranormal Davey was new and not to trust him. All fell on dead ears.
Gene's discussion with him are a matter of public records
I once felt sorry for Gene. now I shrug and as my wife is fond of saying "its karma."
"remember the merry chase " I warned. I also told Gene that paranormal Davey was new and not to trust him. All fell on dead ears.
Gene's discussion with him are a matter of public records
I once felt sorry for Gene. now I shrug and as my wife is fond of saying "its karma."
Shadowprophet
Truthiness
As I get older, I begin to realize, Almost everyone has flaws, Me, you, them. The problem with being a celebrity is, It's like a magnifying lens, magnifies flaws in the public spotlight, I am certain Gene is everything people say he is. I have no doubt, But his main flaw, Is being a celebrity. Metaphorically, Celebrities give up fundamental human rights for the sake of fame and popularity.
I site Rosanne bar as a just plain terrible example for this. We mostly know her story, She gets on twitter and begins saying polarizing things for attention as not just celebrities, But Often, Most all of us do. " I know I have, More times than I can count" So, Being magnified under the lens of fame, Rosanne doesn't just get scolded by a community, Like a nonfamous person, No her actions, And therefore, Her punishment is magnified.
In this lite, I wonder about gene, How much of it is properly accurate, And how much is magnified under a lens of fame.
I only wonder this though, Because I just found out the guy existed, I still have many questions
goblin
Noble
I could be wrong but I've never thought that what he was doing there was fraudulent, honestly. I think the 'friends / family' option is for transactions that are not payments for a good or a service. In this case it's a handout, so I think it actually qualifies. Again I might be mistaken.
He has probably solicited funds under dubious if not outright fraudulent premises many times however. I thought the case against him, with respect to PayPal, might be begging under fraudulent pretenses but, that seems tough to prove. (An example of such might be someone claiming to have cancer and asking for donations for their treatment, and then it becomes known they do not have the disease claimed.)
But what Gene is doing seems to me not unlike the person on the street asking for money for food, when they really want to buy alcohol or drugs. Is that fraud - can someone be prosecuted just for that...? I don't know.
I think Gene is begging for money for God-knows-what but saying the money is for his motel payment or tires or whatever. "And groceries" as someone at UFO Trail comments is fond of saying.
Whether he is using the money he gets to actually cover what he claims... I for one certainly doubt... but might even be hard to prove, money being fungible. Yet at the same time it does seem clear to me he is not prioritizing the things he claims to be soliciting cash for.
goblin
Noble
As I get older, I begin to realize, Almost everyone has flaws, Me, you, them. The problem with being a celebrity is, It's like a magnifying lens, magnifies flaws in the public spotlight, I am certain Gene is everything people say he is. I have no doubt, But his main flaw, Is being a celebrity. Metaphorically, Celebrities give up fundamental human rights for the sake of fame and popularity.
I site Rosanne bar as a just plain terrible example for this. We mostly know her story, She gets on twitter and begins saying polarizing things for attention as not just celebrities, But Often, Most all of us do. " I know I have, More times than I can count" So, Being magnified under the lens of fame, Rosanne doesn't just get scolded by a community, Like a nonfamous person, No her actions, And therefore, Her punishment is magnified.
In this lite, I wonder about gene, How much of it is properly accurate, And how much is magnified under a lens of fame.
I only wonder this though, Because I just found out the guy existed, I still have many questions
I tend to agree: everybody's got something.
When I see the comment shared above with David Biedny saying this is due to Gene's 'rather serious OCD', well, I think all us poor apes got something to deal with, to some degree or another. We're just a little too smart for our own good and yet at the same time not smart enough. Modern life gets us crazy but, ancient life may have as well, I don't know.
If this is OCD out of control in Gene's life, which wouldn't surprise me, I wish he would seek treatment.
I find Gene loathsome but I really don't want to see him homeless. Sometimes I think he belongs in jail though. I just wish he'd stop taking advantage of other but, eh, so it goes. He does his begging thing and then I come here and vent about it.
Shadowprophet
Truthiness
You bring up a nice point, It makes me think about the held belief that people possess of "Justice" and the factual differences of the literally written law.
An example, I had a friend, She was being sued by her Ex-husband. She literally left the man, The man was Extremely well to do financially, But, He even though, he literally owned 400 legitimate acres of land and has a few million dollars in the bank, " This is Kentucky he was a farmer, It's not uncommon here" Anyway, He sued her even though she had no home and was living in a motel, even though she had their daughter to take care of, He sued the woman for half the mortgage on the home they lived in. She told the lawyers about how unjust it was that he was very wealthy he was only trying to sue her only because she left him, The lawyer agreed, It was moral and unjust, But the papers she signed years ago on the mortgage agreement meant she was still responsible to pay for half of his farm.
She has been to jail five times for not being able to make payments, The last I knew of her she took a Job at a Warehouse packing plant and had suffered a heart attack under the stress.
The Idea here is, What people think is Fair and just, And what is literally legal to do, Are very different things sometimes
GhostofBiedny
Celestial
It is fraudulent in the moral sense because the people he is asking to do this are not friends or family. They are complete strangers who he is asking to do it solely for the purpose of avoiding the fee. Now I agree it is unlikely he could get into trouble with the law for this, however, it likely breaks the terms of service for Paypal - he is circumventing fees by being dishonest. I don't think Paypal would like that.
goblin
Noble
Well - again I might be wrong - I think the 'friends and family' option with PayPal just means you are not cutting PayPal out of the percent they should get if one is using PayPal to purchase goods or services. In Gene's case it's a donation - I agree, not really from Friends or Family, but he's not actually selling anyone anything either. I think he's in the wrong in countless ways but I am not sure the Friends and Family thing violates terms with PayPal. If it does then I hope they rebuke him.
Shadowprophet
Truthiness
If I can give an example, As a person who has Did the whole use the internet to make money thing.
There are certain ways to do this, Most people think of Youtube, But that's the one everyone goes for, There are guaranteed ways to make income online if we know how. With Youtube, Of course, we make money from the ad revenue, But There are other ways, a Lot of people Don't know that Google Adsense works anywhere there is internet traffic. They pay a small percentage based solely on View duration. If there isn't enough, Then there is Patreon, Best way for artists and creators to get sustainable income and connect with fans | Patreon The soul of this community is, " I'm a starving artist, Feed me so I can continue my work" <--- Personally, It's begging if you ask me. Then there are super chats. Purchase a Super Chat - YouTube Help This is where the content creator or artist Speaks to a group of people, They are all donating money to the creator in exchange for chat with that person, I'm torn between this being a man playing guitar on the street corner with a hat to collect money, And straight up metaphorical prostitution.
Either way, These are the practices that Google itself teaches, it tells us how to use Google to make money, Anyone who does these things, Will make money...
Google set up a system, Turned all the creators into prostitutes and beggars, and people wonder why I Quit doing it all..
My point being, Gene was taught to do these things, By Google, None other than.
There are certain ways to do this, Most people think of Youtube, But that's the one everyone goes for, There are guaranteed ways to make income online if we know how. With Youtube, Of course, we make money from the ad revenue, But There are other ways, a Lot of people Don't know that Google Adsense works anywhere there is internet traffic. They pay a small percentage based solely on View duration. If there isn't enough, Then there is Patreon, Best way for artists and creators to get sustainable income and connect with fans | Patreon The soul of this community is, " I'm a starving artist, Feed me so I can continue my work" <--- Personally, It's begging if you ask me. Then there are super chats. Purchase a Super Chat - YouTube Help This is where the content creator or artist Speaks to a group of people, They are all donating money to the creator in exchange for chat with that person, I'm torn between this being a man playing guitar on the street corner with a hat to collect money, And straight up metaphorical prostitution.
Either way, These are the practices that Google itself teaches, it tells us how to use Google to make money, Anyone who does these things, Will make money...
Google set up a system, Turned all the creators into prostitutes and beggars, and people wonder why I Quit doing it all..
My point being, Gene was taught to do these things, By Google, None other than.
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GhostofBiedny
Celestial
If it was just a case of him harming himself I would agree with this position but Gene has on numerous occasions harmed others.
For example, the scams involving his brother in law, the repeated slanders against victims, what happened to the father in law, the numerous people he conned to get money and also used to con others out of money, the use of the hurricane to get donations, the adding of people he disagreed with on the forum to the master spam list (falsely) etc...
I have all the sympathy for people who have mental health issues and I do have personal knowledge of such matters. In Gene's case whilst I respect DB, I don't agree that this is characteristic of OCD.
Gene may well suffer from OCD but the antisocial and immoral behaviour is very characteristic of personality disorders (which strictly speaking are not considered illnesses).
In the ICD it would come under antisocial personality disorder:
He has clear antisocial/sociopathic traits (note sociopathy is the old nomenclature but I'm using it because most people understand what it means as opposed to antisocial personality) as shown above. Someone without those traits who has OCD would rarely if ever follow them to the point of harming others, indeed the compulsions in most cases are rituals which attempt to avoid harm to others (and self) in an irrational sense - eg. checking doors repeatedly, saying certain prayers, repeated hand washing.
So to simplify you can be a bad person with mental health problems, but that does not mean the mental health problems cause your bad behaviour. Gene may well have OCD and it may be quite bad but the way he crosses moral lines without a care in the world means it cannot be PURE OCD. However the OCD may well manifest in the way he spends his money and carries out his begging. I hope this makes sense!
One should also be clear that many people deliberately use mental health as an excuse for bad behaviour. Sociopaths and psychopaths are known to regularly use this ploy.
My only hope really by posting here and spreading the word is to prevent others being harmed - particularly those who are unaware of Gene's history of begging and thin they are really helping someone out in need. Sending him money doesn't not help him in any way. It just makes him continue the behaviours which have got him in this place by reinforcing them.
I'm not sure Gene can be helped, and even if he could he would have to ask for help which I don't think he ever would (at least not in any sense apart from money).
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